I choose Chinese...yeah its okay to make fun of me for that. The one extra builder is useless 98% of the time since almost all buildings require even numbers to upgrade/build. So the one extra lonely person who can never find a job just sits there nearly the whole time, praying against the odds a bunny will show up so he can have a meal that day, before I realize I'm wasting my time waiting for a whitish speck to appear on a screen to justify, for 10 seconds, choosing Chinese. The one extra defender doesn't even come into effect until a little later, and then of course does not make a difference. Chu ko nu are pretty nice, though its hard to tell if the dps boost makes a real difference, since I can't run the same battle with other archers instead. Certainly not superior to some other unique units, so doesn't help the Chinese cause really. They fire twice as fast, but each shot does ~60% less damage than other nations archers. Overall they do 22.5-30% (varies by age) more damage than other nation's archers by my math. But they still die about as quick.
If we ever get to change, I am changing on day one, to either German or Roman, or if I'm super lazy and forgetful perhaps Greek.